BAGHDAD: Iraq has declared that no United States troops remain on its territory, not even in advisory roles, while Baghdad presses ahead with a sweeping plan to place every weapon in the country under state control by June 2027.
Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi told the Iraqi News Agency that the departure of foreign forces had stripped armed groups of the justification they once used to keep their weapons. For years, factions argued that their arms were necessary to confront foreign troops. With those troops gone, the government says, that argument no longer stands, according to Anadolu.
Al-Zaidi described the decision as final and irreversible. “By June 30, 2027, there will be no weapons outside the framework of the state,” he said, framing the deadline as a test of Iraq’s ability to govern itself.
The announcement comes as Baghdad seeks to strengthen its strategic partnership with Washington while also asserting greater sovereignty at home. According to Al-Zaidi, the government has reached agreements with three armed factions over the handover of their weapons and is negotiating with four others to complete the process.
His language was pointed. “Iraq is a state that has factions, not factions that own a state,” he said a statement aimed at groups whose armed power has often rivalled that of official institutions.
The prime minister’s remarks also revealed how close Iraq believes it came to a deeper crisis. Al-Zaidi said the country had once been only days away from international isolation, with foreign embassies preparing to leave and restrictions looming. Western governments, he claimed, had come to believe that certain armed groups effectively controlled the Iraqi state.
He said his government had managed to overcome that threat, though he did not detail the measures taken.
The pledge to disarm factions represents one of the most consequential challenges facing Iraq: transforming a political landscape long shaped by militias into one governed by a single national authority. Success would strengthen the state; failure could deepen the divisions it seeks to erase.
